Number of words: 109

Unfortunately, too many papers merely “scrub” the text of the article to eliminate the incorrect information, never advising the reader of the error or the correction. Scrubbing is troublesome practice because it goes against the ethic of correction: The error is never acknowledged. Scrubbing is, in effect, a cover-up. It’s unprincipled and disingenuous.

Even many bloggers have come to routinely correct their online errors by striking a line through the incorrect text and placing the correct information after it. The reader is thus able to see the original error in its original location. This offers a contextual correction.

Excerpted from page 234 of ‘Regret the Error’ by Craig Silverman